Manningham park-and-ride commuters battle overcrowding, lack of car parking

THERE are no plans to create a second park-and-ride service in Manningham despite angry commuters complaining it is jam-packed well before 8am.

Commuter Georgina Sack is concerned about queues and availability at the Doncaster park-and-ride service.

The State Government has no plans to create a second park-and-ride service in Manningham despite angry commuters complaining it is jam-packed well before 8am.

And due to carpark overcrowding, the Manningham council is now encouraging commuters who live near bus stops and the park-and-ride not to park at the facility due to frantic demand for one of its 400 parking spaces.

Adding to the commuter woes are long queues to get on to packed buses, exacerbated by Manningham being the only municipality in Melbourne with no train or tram options.

Donvale’s Georgina Sack says parking spaces at the park-and-ride on the corner of Doncaster Rd and the Eastern Fwy are all gone by 8am.

And the 61-year-old said there were now queues 70 people long to get onto crammed buses to the city during peak times, leaving people lucky to even get standing room.

The morning queue at Doncaster's park-and-ride last week.

Commuters wait in the line for the bus.

“I’ve started taking the bus for the last year and it’s been getting progressively worse,” she said.

“The buses are way too full, they push you on, they tell us to move to the back, it’s terrible.”

Ms Sack said she had emailed the Manningham council and State Government with her concerns in November.

Manningham chief executive Warwick Winn said the council was appealing to both sides of State Parliament for a big upgrade for the Manningham bus network given their lack of support for a Doncaster Rail link.

He said the council wanted significant improvements in the capacity and frequency of the 907 and 908 DART services, but in the meantime was working with bus operator Transdev to “encourage people who park at Doncaster park-and-ride to consider catching the bus closer to home, if possible”.

Mr Winn understands the reason why VicRoads wasn’t actively looking for a second park-and-ride site was because an alternative site had not yet been determined.

The only money the State Government has allocated is for a review to look into the problem.

Public transport minister Jacinta Allan said the State Government had given $100,000 in last year’s state budget “to look at the infrastructure upgrades needed to support more DART services and move more passengers”.

“Future investment in the park-and-ride and bus services in Doncaster will be guided by this work,” she said.

Opposition leader and Bulleen MP Matthew Guy said parking issues at the park-and-ride were an “enormous problem” and he no longer parked at the facility.

Mr Guy said the State Opposition would push for more parking at the Doncaster park-and-ride or a second facility in the lead up to the 2018 State Election.